I spent over two weeks at a cabin along the Blue River in Colorado. The
cabin is at 8900' elevation and 10 miles north of Dillon/Silverthorne. While
there I made two trips to Lower Cataract Lake which is about 15 miles from
the cabin.

On July 5 at the west end of the lake the trail is about 100' above the
lake. We noticed a pair of agitated Western Wood-Peewees(WEWP). Someone
noticed a snake crawling up the 6-7' bush toward a nest. I scrambled about
12' down the steep slope and not knowing what kind of a snake it was I
grabbed it the middle and jerked it out of the bush. We couldn't see it in
the deep grass. I did see a baby WEWP in the grass which was alive but
bloody. I picked it up and put in the nest which was already full of three
baby birds. I am not sure if it could have survived. We watched a few
minutes for the snake and then someone saw it was back crawling up the bush.
It was a garter snake about 30" long and about the thickness of my thumb.
She went down and pulled the snake out by the tail. I took the snake from
her and threw it down the slope as far as I could. Hopefully, this
discouraged the snake from trying again. I figured garter snakes would go
after birds eggs, but I was surprised it would try to take baby birds which
would be a big stretch to try and swallow.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at bigzoo.net